The Great Geek Manual

Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “Bad Dogs Escape” by James Patrick Kelly at EscapePod.
• Listen to “Black Hill” by Orrin Grey at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Catastrophe Baker Makes First Contact” by Mike Resnick at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “Fermaville” by Paul Di Filippo at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “How Many Miles to Babylon?” by Megan Arkenberg at Lightspeed.
• Listen to “The Man Who Lived Backwards” by Charles F. Hall at Classic Tales.
• Listen to “Read This Quickly, For You Will Only Have a Moment…” by Stephen Case at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• Listen to “Scattered Along the River of Heaven” by Aliette de Bodard.
• Listen to “A Window, Clear as a Mirror” by Ferret Steinmetz at PodCastle.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• 20 “Doctor Who” Parodies
• Download Jesus riding a Dinosaur as a paper toy from DigitProp.
• The Page Turner is the latest Rube Goldberg machine from Brooklyn-based kinetic artist Joseph Herscher.
• School Yard Superheroes
• Skyrim in Legos
• Space Invaders Graffiti

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• Geek Zodiac
• MASS EFFECT Monopoly!
• Seriously epic Eye of Sauron Tattoo
• Variations on the Apple logo

Comics

• The 50 best covers of 2011.
• Comic Book Character New Year’s Resolutions
• Joss Whedon’s Fray: Motion Comic Book Part 1

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• The Blade Runner sketch book
• Dennis Menheere Splatters Superb Versions of Spider-Man, The Avengers and More
• Matrix directors show us 2144 Seoul in CLOUD ATLAS concept art

Comics

• Interview: Comic book writer Alan Moore talking about science and imagination
• Interview: ‘Moving forward and creating new things’: Eric Stephenson looks ahead to Image Comic’s upcoming year
• 2011 Year-End Infographics: The Most Successful Kickstarter Comics
• 2011 Year-End Infographics: Comics Publisher Dominance
• Ker-pow! Women kick back against comic-book sexism

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• “The Houses of Westeros” is a fantastic series of minimalist posters inspired by the Game of Thrones series
• Tired of hearing about Vader, Luke, Han and Leia all the time? Artist Elliot Quince decided to give some of the lesser known characters in Star Wars a bit of the limelight in his clay work Plasticine Tatooine.

Comics

• Interview: Marjorie Liu on writing prose, Astonishing X-Men and other matters
• 5 Lamest Moments From DC’s New 52 in 2011
• 10 of the Year’s Most Buzzed-About Comic Releases
• 13 Fantastic Female Comics Creators of 2011
• The 50 best covers of 2011, chosen by Robot 6
• The best comics of 2011: Superhero and mainstream
• BuffyFest have exclusively released the alternate cover for issue 8. [Spoilers]
• ComicsAlliance’s Complete 11 Best Comics of 2011
• Top Ten Single Issues of 2011, as chosen by Comics Bulletin

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Book: The Night Eternal
ISBN-13: 978-0061558269

Author: Guillermo Del Toro
Series: The Strain Trilogy, Book 3
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Horror / Fantasy
Release: October 25, 2011
Length: 384 pages (Hardcover)

Book Rating: C- (65 / 100)
Series Rating: C+ (75 / 100)

Verdict

The Night Eternal is an unfortunately weak conclusion to the single most cinematic book series released in recent memory. Overall, the quality of the book is inconsistent with the previous two entries in the series. Even so, Del Toro’s horror trilogy might have gone down in history as one of the classics of the genre, if not for the eleventh hour incorporation of Christian mythology as the lynch-pin in the story’s climax. All in all, the book is nearly a complete disappointment.

Pros: Very cinematic prose. Excellent action sequences. Fantastic premise.

Cons: Inconsistent tone. Characters don’t ring true. Heavy reliance on deus ex machina devices. Sappy conclusion.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “Ass-Hat Magic Spider” by Scott Westerfeld at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “A Fairy Tale of Oakland” by Tim Pratt at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “Fortitude” by David Brin at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “A Hundred Thousand Armstrongs” by Zoltán László at The World SF Blog.
• Listen to “Limits” by Donna Glee Williams at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Long Winter’s Nap” by Catherine H. Shaffer at EscapePod.
• Listen to “The Mansion” by Henry van Dyke at Journey Into…
• Listen to “One Free Go” by Michelle Ann King at Wily Writers.
• Listen to “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “Til Human Voices Take Us” by Lewis Shiner at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “Widdershins” by Robert Mammone at Pseudopod.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• Gallery of Christmas-Themed Galaxy Covers From the Pulp Days of Sci-Fi
• Godzilla Christmas Tree
• Jack Skellington Ornaments
• ‘John Carter’ Concept Art Reveals More of Andrew Stanton’s Mars

Read the rest of this entry » » »